The present invention relates to a system and method for installing third party software programs on a personal computer. In particular, the present invention pertains to an intelligent and non obtrusive system and method for installing third party software on a computer where the chores of installing and rebooting the third party software are minimized.
Suppliers of hardware and software have make their products increasingly user friendly and hassle free for businesses and consumers alike to embrace the computer revolution. In contrast, the process of installing software whether they be operating systems, applications or utilities, is getting lengthy and complicated. By installation, the present invention refers to the first time process a user go through to configure and initiate a new software on a computer. The reasons for lengthy installation of software are many fold: (1) software are getting larger and more complicated to meet the end users"" requirements; (2) software have to work with an increasing choice of peripherals and devices and also other programs; and (3) security concerns mandate the architecture of software be multi-layer and the attendant compatibility tests which are required.
It is not that unusually for a user of a new computer system to spend up to an hour installing a new operating system such as Windows NT from Microsoft. Throw in the additional time required for installing third party applications and utilities program further increase the total amount of time. In an attempt to reduce the length of time for installing software, manufacturers and suppliers offer businesses and consumers the convenience of xe2x80x9cconfigure-to-orderxe2x80x9d where software and certain peripherals are bundled and preloaded at factory before it is shipped to end users.
Although configure to order (CTO) systems cut down significantly the possible delay the end user experiences when using his computer especially when it comes to the operating system, he nevertheless has to manually install third party software including applications and utilities and others. The end user""s initial encounter with his new computer defines and colors his overall perception of the user friendliness of the computer. Hitherto, the end user of a new computer has to manually install third party software. As part of the general licensing obligations, the end user inputs his personal identification, product information and also work piece number before the application is installed. Some applications requires the end user to restart the computer before the application can be used. Most often, problems with installation of third party software occur at this juncture. Worse yet, the installation procedure of all the other software including operating system may have to be repeated. The manufacturer and suppliers of computer system has to devote considerable resource to handle such software issues when the end user encounters difficulties in installing and using third party software. 24 hours hot line, backup diskettes or similar recorded media and other after sales overhead are generally required to ease the end user beyond this initial stage of using his computer.
It is desirable to launch automatically the installation of third party software program of a new computer system. Furthermore, it is helpful to permit the end user interaction to comply with licensing requirement of third party software programs while launching the installation of such program transparently. Finally, it is ideal to allow a computer system to reboot after the installation of a third party software before proceeding automatically to the next installation.
The present invention is a system and method for facilitating the installation of third party software programs according to the user""s preferred configuration. While it permits the normal user inputs such as keying in of personal information and license keys, it masks the actual installation process and reactivates automatically the next installation once previous one is completed. Not only does it allow the user to configure the system of his choice, but it permits the manufacturer to customize the configuration effectively on a mass production and product to order system.